National Security Adviser John Bolton stands alongside US President Donald Trump as he speaks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, May 17, 2018.
Saul Loeb/Getty Images

President Donald Trump fired John Bolton as national security adviser this week, citing strong disagreements between them and others in his administration.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has quickly grown impatient with anyone who criticizes or opposes him, and he reportedly became paranoid that Bolton was leaking negative things to the press.

Trump has also been considering easing sanctions on Iran in order to secure a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, according to a new report, and Bolton's staunch opposition to this seemed to be the final straw for the president.

Unlike Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who's emerged as one of Trump's most trusted and loyal advisers, Bolton never wanted to get along with the president and be the "yes man" he desired.

The two have even been at odds over the circumstances of Bolton's dismissal. Trump said he requested Bolton's resignation, but Bolton said that "never" happened and he'd offered to resign.

Unlike Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who's emerged as one of Trump's most trusted and loyal advisers, Bolton never wanted to get along with the president and be the "yes man" he desired.

Aaron David Miller, who helped shape US foreign policy for decades advising secretaries of state across Republican and Democratic administrations, on Tuesday told The Washington Post: "Bolton was out of sync with Trump on Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and Venezuela ... Pompeo played the game of Trump whisperer better than Bolton."

Trump likes to make deals — he's referred to dealmaking as his art form. But Bolton, who's known as one of the most hawkish figures in Washington, was not on the same page as Trump when it came to holding talks with US adversaries like North Korea and Iran.

When Trump met with Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in late June, Bolton dodged the entire thing and went to Mongolia instead.

Bolton's aversion to diplomacy quite clearly peeved the president.

"John Bolton is absolutely a hawk," Trump told NBC in June. "If it was up to him, he'd take on the whole world at one time, OK? But that doesn't matter because I want both sides."

Bolton was too obstinate for Trump's taste

Trump on Saturday left Washington rattled after suddenly revealing he'd invited the Taliban to Camp David for a secret meeting to finalize peace talks, only to cancel it at the last minute due to a recent Taliban attack that killed a US soldier.

In the aftermath, it was reported Trump had overruled top advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence — in inviting the Taliban to the presidential retreat. Trump took to Twitter and called this coverage "fake," and reportedly blamed Bolton for leaking it to the media.

Trump in recent weeks has floated the possibility of speaking with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and discussed potentially easing up on economic sanctions in order to secure the meeting at the UN General Assembly in late September, according to a Bloomberg report. Bolton, whose made his anti-Iran sentiments no secret, was staunchly against this and his obstinance was apparently the final straw for Trump.

The Iranians have been celebrating Bolton's demise. Rouhani adviser Hesameddin Ashena on Tuesday tweeted that Bolton's ousting is a "decisive sign of the failure of the U.S. maximum pressure strategy in the face of the constructive resistance from Iran."

It seems that that Trump saw Bolton as a fundamental obstacle to diplomatic efforts with other countries as he seeks a win on the global stage ahead of an election year. As he spoke about Bolton's departure on Wednesday, Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "wanted nothing to do with" him during talks with the US. The president went on to say, "I don't blame Kim Jong Un."

But not everyone in Washington is convinced that Bolton's stubbornness is what let to his departure. James Carafano, a national security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Insider, "I don't think it's fair to say that Trump fired him because he wasn't a yes man ... Trump doesn't mind people disagreeing with him."

"Trump has a different approach to diplomacy than Bolton does," Carafano added, going on to say that the president saw this as the time to transition away from Bolton's "muscular" foreign policy.

Trump is now reportedly considering making Pompeo national security adviser on top of secretary of state, placing him in a dual-role that has not been seen since former President Richard Nixon had Henry Kissinger take on both jobs. If Pompeo is tapped to fill this role on top of his current duties, the president might finally get the pliable national security adviser many feel he's been looking for all along.

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